At a panel discussion hosted by Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Italian language version of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson’s best-selling book Una Civiltà Dell’Amore was officially released in Rome on December 9. Anderson and Fr. Lombardi were joined at the panel discussion by Fr. Giuseppe Costa (Director of Libreria Editrice Vaticana), John Thavis (Rome Editor, CNS), Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko (President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity), and Prof. Franco Miani.

Anderson wrote the book “as part of a discussion that has been going on in the Catholic Church for more than forty years.” The Second Vatican Council, he notes, “challenged cultures on a global basis by a set of values inspired by its understanding of each person’s true vocation.

“Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have called for an effort to combat the 21st Century’s culture of death by working together to build a civilization of love. Anderson’s book explores "the implications of this call,” which is not limited to Catholics. “While I believe the building of a civilization of love is the responsibility of every Christian, all Christians must work to realize this vision in such a way that Jews, Muslims and others were welcome to participate,” Anderson states in the book’s introduction.